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Science Named One of the Top 100 Journals in Biology and Medicine

Science has been named one of the top 100 journals that have led the way in and biology and medicine over the last century by the Biomedical and Life Sciences Division of the Special Libraries Association (SLA).

Science is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

The top 100 list is the result of a poll conducted by the SLA as part of its 100th anniversary celebration. The SLA is a professional group of librarians, information center managers, and publishing industry executives.

To compile the list, the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division polled its 686 members, asking them to propose the most 100 most influential biology and medical journals of the past century.

An international panel of nine subject-expert librarians in biology and medicine screened thousands of journals, selecting over 500 for inclusion on the ballot. The membership then voted in the 100 finalists.

Science did so well, according to the poll's editor-in-chief, Tony Stankus, because it consistently publishes significant advances in all three of the main interest groups encompassed by the Division: Molecular and Cellular Biology; Natural History including Human Evolution and Paleontology, and Clinical Investigation. Stankus is life sciences librarian at the University of Arkansas and director of the SLA's Biomedical and Life Sciences Division.

"This is truly an honor," said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of Science. "We thank the members of the SLA Biomedical and Life Sciences Division for their recognition of our efforts to publish groundbreaking scientific news, commentary, and research, and we appreciate their holding us in such high esteem."

The poll was intended to be international in scope, to consider journals over the entire last century, and to provide the next generation of SLA members with a list of important working titles.

The DBIO will narrow down this list to announce their top 10 picks, plus the "journal of the century," at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on 16 June.